Perhaps the best feature of RPGs, and the reason they’re so well-loved as a genre today, is because of the freedom they offer the player. Narrative freedom, mechanical freedom,freedom of exploration, it all comes together to make a game that feels like the player can deliver a real impact upon its world and characters.
And just like in real life, players in many RPGs have the option to hold values and convictions that shape how the world sees them. Maybe these are philosophical or ideological values, or they’re more straightforward views such as “I must bring peace and joy to every living creature on this planet” or “I must make at least fifteen children cry a day” - though this classic good/evil binary has fallen out of fashion inmore recent titles. For players who want to see the game change around their morality, be they good, evil, or something in between, these are some titles to keep an eye on.
Shin Megami Tenseititles are known for a few things in particular. Esoteric worldbuilding and lore, for one.Incredible difficulty, for another. But the balance between Law and Chaos has been something explored in almost every title within the series to date, and almost always affects the world on a narrative scale. For a few games, however, there isn’t really much of a mechanical shift in how the title plays until late game, with the addition of characters or concepts based on character alignment.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Reduxtakes things in a different direction, with the character’s alignment impacting what demons they can easily recruit. A chaos-oriented player might find it more difficult to get ahold of healers, and will have to play more aggressively with their chaos demons. A law-oriented player might sacrifice raw strength or magic output for a more well rounded, defensive group of demons.
The brooding younger sibling to BioWare’s expansiveStar Warsspace opera,Knights of the Old Republic 2takes on an incredibly philosophical view of theStar Warsuniverse’s balance between the Light and Dark side of the force (technically, the force is only imbalanced once people start using the dark side, but that’s a tangent for another article). This is no small feat, considering the game manages to add some level of nuance between the benevolent protectors of life, and the creepy pale dudes in robes who shoot lightning from their fingertips.
But this morality is where the game’s mechanics change. Force skills are grouped with the player’s alignment, so a light side user gets much more effect out of force healing and speed, while a dark side user gains far more aggressive force powers. This is also reflectedin the companions, and how they shift alongside the player’s push to the light or dark.
The world changes and reacts to the way Arthur holds himself, with the honor mechanic inRed Dead Redemption 2being more about Arthur’s internal morality than his reputation with the world. Having said that, the people will certainly notice if a virtuous wanderer or villainous marauder enters their town, and honor changes how Arthur can expect to exist in this setting.
Prices increase for low honor characters, promoting the need to steal goods, while high honor charactersare well-loved, and the game again shifts to promoting a more peaceable, even charismatic style of play for Arthur.
WithAvowedapproaching early next year, there are more reasons than ever for players to immerse themselves in the expansive world and writing ofPillars of Eternity, with both the original and sequel being fantastic titles with plenty for RPG fans to sink their teeth into.
Rather than moral alignments, players have a variety of outlooks and values known as dispositions they can affix themselves to. These affect gameplay in prominent ways, especially if the Paladin class is chosen, as they have preferred dispositions that impact the effectiveness of their skills. Beyond this, disposition affects how players are perceived by characters and can even have effects that grant quests unique endings - for better or worse.
Based upon the classic D&D alignment archetypes,Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteoushas ten mystic paths players can aspire towards as they build their character, with each one playing incredibly differently from one another.
Alignments impact everything in the world of both this game and its predecessor,and publisher Owlcatmade sure to create as detailed a TTRPG simulation as they could in these reactive, expansive pair of titles.
